On Wednesday, Dec. 3, the Wesleyan Interfaith Literacy and Diversity interns, also known as WILDs, organized a two-part series of events called Faith and Frameworks. Students came together to discuss, navigate, and learn about how being a religious person intersects with core aspects of campus life.
Faith and Frameworks was a program that embodied the exchange of knowledge about the values and belief systems of different faiths while simultaneously providing an opportunity to share stories and experiences and ask questions with people from varying religious backgrounds. WILD interns work closely with the campus chaplains—Reverend Tracy Mehr-Muska, Shaykh Jamir Meah, and Rabbi David Teva—to create programming that generally falls into the categories of interfaith literacy, dialogue, and outreach for wider causes, such as volunteering at food kitchens.
When deciding what this semester’s WILD program would be, my co-chair, John McGowan ’28, and I were discussing how we want the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (ORSL) to offer more spaces or programs for students who are actively observant and practicing their religion. ORSL has many great resources for students to engage in mindfulness, but it’s also important to keep in mind that many students are seeking avenues to discuss and express their faith, which may be outside of a wellness-oriented activity.
Additionally, the WILDs have had conversations about how being religious on a campus where the culture can sometimes feel unwelcoming to discussing one’s relationship with their faith can be quite a challenge for students who see their faith as a salient part of their identity and find it clashing with parts of a secular environment. For these reasons, Faith and Frameworks was designed to support students through these challenges.
The program Zaynah Almasri ’27, Rena Chen ’26, and I ran on Wednesday, Nov. 19 was titled Faith and Frameworks: Beliefs, Boundaries, and the Party Scene. Our program was a student-only dinner and discussion on the complexities of living authentically and faithfully while managing the many social pressures and opportunities of college life. In the context of our event, we understand party culture as social gatherings in which a student’s faith background or deeply held beliefs, values, and worldviews come into contact or conflict with the party scene (which might include drinking, drugs, etc.).
The program started off with students writing down three things they associate with a college party, and they rated their comfort level with each item. Then, in small groups, participants discussed what they wrote on their sticky note and if their answers or rationale for each rating stemmed from a personal story or something they’ve heard about party culture. After this, we entered into a larger discussion with the whole group about what it was like hearing someone else’s perspective, which made us find connections between our experiences. The event concluded with a hypothetical case study of a student navigating their religious beliefs in the context of a dilemma about attending a party. Participants walked through how they would help this hypothetical student.
In a post-event anonymous survey the interns conducted to gauge reactions to this program, many students felt grateful that ORSL was offering a nonjudgmental space to discuss real issues students are grappling with authentically.
“I felt encouraged by other like-minded people and found a community that has dealt with similar issues in the past,” one student wrote. “I would like to connect with similar groups more often.”
Trevor Brooks ’27, a member of Wesleyan Christian Fellowship (WesCF), found Faith and Frameworks to be an enriching opportunity for interfaith learning and sharing.
“I love interfaith events at Wesleyan because of how open and honest the conversations are,” Brooks said. “Faith and Frameworks was exactly the kind of conversation I wish I’d had as a freshman. Being with other students from faith communities is a really accepting environment.”
The second program of the series was led by Mia Shenkman ’26, John McGowan ’28, and Raef Galicia ’28, and it was titled: “Faith and Frameworks: Beliefs, Boundaries, and Academic Scholarship.” This discussion centered on the complexities and implications of what it means to be a person of faith and an academic and how these identities and experiences interact with one another.
A highlight of the event was a conversation with Assistant Professor of History and Religion Joseph Slaughter. Professor Slaughter spoke about his positive experience being raised Christian while also commenting on how, during his graduate studies, he experienced a lack of religious representation among the faculty, which affected how supported he felt academically. After Professor Slaughter’s reflection and perspective, the participants drew naturally into small group conversations about Wesleyan’s relationship with religion in terms of how it’s talked about and how tensions have arisen between religious identities/beliefs and being a university student.
Many students commented on the ways that being a practicing person of faith on this campus feels like that practice is only accepted if it’s palatable for others, but when your practice doesn’t feel understood or is delegitimized, peers can make broad assumptions about your beliefs.
Overall, Faith and Frameworks was an impactful success, creating an authentic and nonjudgmental space where students from diverse faith backgrounds could openly discuss topics at the intersection of their religious identities and experiences here on this campus. The WILD interns plan on continuing this type of programming next semester.
Zara Skolnik is a member of the class of 2026 and can be reached at zskolnik@wesleyan.edu.
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